Blink Midwinter 2010

2010 marked our third year doing blinky Christmas lights. Time was not on our side, so much so that the show almost didn’t happen. When folks started driving by on Thanksgiving night, obviously looking for the lights, I decided we needed to at least do a reprise of last year’s show. That’s what we did, and so there you have it.

The rundown of the display elements was the same as last years, without the lights on the eves. Set up started November 26th, and the show was up and running with four songs on December 5th, without the three megatrees and four white trees to the left of the house. The rest of the show was on-line by the 12th.

Altogether there were 20,177 lights using at most about 4 hairdryer’s worth of electricity for the moments when everything was turned on (about 7500 watts). 123 channels of Light-O-Rama controlled it all, and a Ramsey FM25B transmitter was broadcasting at 92.7 MHz through a homemade folded dipole antenna in the attic.

The playlist:

Jingle Bells – Denver and the Mile High Orchestra

Siberian Sleigh Ride – TSO

Music Box Dancer – DJ Schwede

Joy To The World – Go Fish

Power Upgrade/Lucasfilm THX Intro

Notes

Lets see, yep, the biggest note from 2010 is… YOU CAN’T START TOO EARLY! That doesn’t need any more elaboration.

We were treated to a very rare Christmas Day snowstorm that dumped about three inches of the white stuff. It’s been something like 122 years since that’s happened in the Altanta area. Of course snow in the trees and on the lights was just beautiful. There’s some photos from that evening on our Facebook page here.

The Wal-Mart blue incandescent mini lights faded a lot their first season last year, and some are now indistinguishable from clear lights on the same tree. It’s probably worth the extra expense of buying a “pro” grade blue mini, or blue M5 LED’s.

Supply-wise, the selection and quantity of 100 count mini strings was even sparser than 2009. The local Wal-Marts were cleaned out by the second week in December so very little made it to the after-Christmas sales. Hoping, along with every other decorator, that as the economy improves the big-box stores get back to offering more variety and quantities. While I like the low power requirements and look of most LED lights, especially the blue ones, it would cost several $$$$ to upgrade.